Master Prank Gone Wrong
by Linorien
Summary: When a pranking war begins at the Stark Manor, Tony gets the idea to create a lightweight replica of Mjolnir. He would then nonchalantly carry it around, seeing if he could fool the public into thinking he, of all people, was worthy of lifting the hammer. Thor agrees to help but with a little prank of his own.


Having turned down his kingship in Asgard, Thor now had more time to spend on Earth. When he did visit the human realm, he usually stayed with Tony Stark at his mansion. It had both the advantage of having an extra bedroom, but also he could hide under Stark's eccentricity. No one was surprised to see a guy flying when Iron Man lived there. And anything else that went ary could be passed off as an experiment gone wrong.

One of the times Thor came to visit, Tony declared a week long party for all of the Avengers. Pepper spent the days leading up to their arrival hiding everything that is breakable. There were less childish activities and competition this time around so she needn't have worried, but she had learned from the past.

It was more civil this time, possibly because this time Pepper wasn't the only female. Natasha was in between missions and Thor brought Jane along. They ordered out for food, played some variations of popular sports, and talked on the beach over drinks. Generally behaving like adults. But small pranks still happened.

Clint had built some trick arrows that rained silly string on unsuspecting guests. Steve enjoyed classic pranks like drawing on other's foreheads while they slept. And Bruce did some chemistry to make everyone's martinis taste like sour milk. But the award for best prank goes to a combined Tony and Thor. Tony may never find out what Thor did, but the others are still shocked.

The master prank begins with Tony. He had been out of the papers for a record long two months now and he was itching for the spotlight. He knew that the paparazzi usually watched the local beach, hoping to score some mostly nude pictures of other local celebrities. Tony would take advantage of this. He would sell the story that he was the only human worthy to lift the mighty Mjölnir.

In his workshop, he fashioned a model of Thor's hammer. None of these cheap plastic ones on the market would do. Pure metal only. It would obviously not be impossible to lift, but he couldn't risk a gust of wind blowing it over or a wave making it float, thereby destroying the prank. In order to sell this fake story to the media, he had to get the others involved. Thor had to carry the fake one out to the beach and the others had to look surprised when he could lift it. After a bit of wine, they agreed.

As Tony spent the next day refining the finishing touches in his workshop, Thor talked with the rest of the crew to explain his idea for a counter prank.

"We've all been annoyed with Stark's ego at points and while I am not the best example of humility, I propose we prank him back." The others nodded, liking where this was going so far. "Instead of carrying out his fake hammer that he is working on, I will bring my hammer. He will be talking about how he could lift it as we play along and then when he goes to swing it up over his head, he will suddenly find he is a slave to the weight of the real hammer. Then we get to make fun of him for suddenly becoming weak and unable to lift simple metal."

"Won't he be able to tell the difference between your hammer and his?" Bruce asked. "I'm not talking about the weight, but just the design of the handle or the shine of the metal?"

"He will not think anything of it if he notices," Natasha replied. "He has been studying the real one for a while and he will try to make it perfect. And although he is annoying most of the time, Tony is a brilliant engineer. He will have made it practically indistinguishable."

"I like it." Steve nodded. "Sounds fun and harmless. And although I don't normally wish any bad press upon anyone, Tony sometimes needs a little."

"So we are all in agreement then. Good."

"We will need to hide his hammer so that he doesn't give Thor the wrong one," Clint pointed out.

"I can steal it the night before; he will just think he lost it and we can tell him that you have it, Thor."

"Good idea." Thor concluded. They dispersed. "It seems Loki has rubbed off on me a little more than I thought as children," he muttered.

The next morning, everything was going according to plan. Tony had wondered where his hammer was but Thor admitted that he had taken it up to his room to compare it to his hammer.

"I admit, it is incredibly close to the real one." Tony brushed it off even though he was really proud of it. And so he didn't notice when Thor took his own hammer to the beach.

It actually looked more out of place than normal as the hammer guarded the towels on the sand while they enjoyed the cool ocean on the excessively humid day. When the heat of midday had abated, they entered phase two of their plan. Thor was idly spinning his hammer as they took a stroll down toward the public beach area. Too far for their voices to carry, they didn't have to act like they were bickering about whether or not Tony could lift Mjölnir. Thor simply set it down on the sand and took a defiant step back. The moment of realization that he, Tony Stark, had been pranked would soon be upon them.

He braced himself, planting his feet in the hot sand. He grasped the handle with both hands, adjusting his grip. He pulled, but not really trying at first, making it look hard. After a few "attempts" he readjusted his grip and swung the hammer up into the air, victoriously holding it over his head.

No acting was necessary when the others realized what he had just done. They were appropriately shocked. Natasha quickly indicated that no one was to tell Tony. Before he noticed, they schooled their features to a less realistic look of surprise. Tony paraded around with it before tossing it over to Thor.

"Now all we have to do is watch the news tonight and watch the whole world fall for our little prank." And with that, Tony sauntered back towards his home, leaving the others to follow in his wake, still taken aback by how much their own prank had backfired.


End file.
